As former tour guides, we were accustomed to living out of carry-on suitcases for long stretches. We understand how daunting it can be to compile the perfect carry-on composition for international travel.

When you visit Delphi for the first time—or the twentieth—the site’s natural beauty steals your breath, and you appreciate just how much of an aesthete Apollo was to select that particular hillside as the location of his most significant oracle.

Dotting the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily lay the Aeolian archipelago, a strand of seven volcanic islands cast amid expansive blue waters, white sands, and volcanic pumice.

Aeolus was the god and keeper of the winds who resided on the floating island of Aeolia. He helped Odysseus on his journey home from the Trojan War, warmly welcoming him and his crew and offering them hospitality for a month.

Polyphemus was one of the Cyclopes, a race of one-eyed giants, sons of Poseidon, the god of the sea and earthquakes. He lived in a cave at the base of Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily where he tended to his sheep.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, American forces faced some of the most intense and challenging conditions at Omaha Beach. The beach was heavily fortified with German defenses, including bunkers, artillery, machine-gun nests, barbed wire and mines.

My childhood memories are rooted in the Thüringen forest in winter. A Brothers Grimm, fairy-tale kind of place, the dark forest was my playground that spilled into the glowing warmth of the village.